Ezekielchapter 9
11 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
Then I heard Him call out in a loud voice, saying, “Draw near, O executioners of the city, each with a weapon of destruction in hand.”
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
Ezekiel saw this as the temple vision went on, with the exiles' elders still seated before him in his house. They trusted a holy place to protect them. The chapter is a scene of judgment carried out in order, and it begins at the most unexpected spot. Listen for the one figure who carries a writing case instead of a weapon. Notice who receives his mark, and what the prophet himself says when he is left alone among the slain.
Context
- Who
- The elders sitting in front of Ezekiel while he saw it
- What
- Six men with weapons come to strike Jerusalem, while a man clothed in linen marks those who grieve over its sins so that they are spared.
- Where
- In the vision, the upper gate facing north and the bronze altar of the temple in Jerusalem.
- When
- The sixth year of Jehoiachin's exile, about September 592 BC, within the vision begun in chapter 8.
- Why
- To show that judgment would begin at the sanctuary and that God knew and kept the faithful who mourned the city's evil.
Historical context
The six men who come from the upper gate carry what the text calls shattering weapons, heavy clubs or maces. A mace was a real infantry weapon, a stone or metal head on a short handle, and it was also the standard symbol of authority to execute a sentence.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The seventh man is dressed differently and equipped differently: linen clothing, and a writing case at his side. Scribes carried a palette, a slim wooden case holding reed pens, a small knife, and cakes of dried ink, slung from a belt or tucked in a sash. Egyptian tomb paintings show them exactly like this, and the Hebrew word here is a loan from Egyptian. He is an official recorder, not a soldier.
The mark he puts on foreheads is named as a letter: taw, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In the older Hebrew script of Ezekiel's day taw was written as a simple cross or X. It was the mark an illiterate man made to sign a document, the ordinary sign of ownership and agreement.
The order of operations would have shaken any priest. Begin at my sanctuary. Not begin with the worst of the population, or with the outer suburbs, begin at the holy building, and with the elders in front of it. Judgment starts where the light was brightest.
Significance
The exiles' theology of protection was tied to a place. This chapter replaces it with a mark on a person, and the people who get the mark are the ones who sigh and groan over what is being done in the city, the grieving minority nobody in power noticed.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
Ezekiel's own reaction is the one the hearers would have had. He falls on his face and cries out, will you destroy the whole remnant of Israel? The answer he gets is not comfort but a reason: the land is full of blood and the city full of injustice. Still, the marked ones are not touched, and the exiles are left to ask which group they belong to.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's table of synagogue readings ties no weekly portion and no Haftarah to this chapter. Probed for this lane, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot 0 and haftarah uses 0 for Ezekiel 9, and no festival reading for the book. The table holds the Haftarah of each weekly portion and the six books read whole on a feast or a fast. Across chapters 1 to 24 of Ezekiel the same probe found a Haftarah only in chapters 20 and 22.
How it is read
Rashi is the main commentator on this chapter in the corpus. He is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The translation is modern, so every quotation from it is fifty words or fewer.
The six men with weapons Rashi names from the Talmud, as "Anger, Wrath, Fury, Destroyer, Breaker, Annihilator" (Rashi on Ezekiel 9:2:1). The writer's case at the waist of the seventh held "wax- covered tablets upon which they engrave with a stylus" (Rashi on Ezekiel 9:2:3).
The glory rises from the cherub, and Rashi reads it as the first of ten steps. The Shechinah "began to withdraw and to go outside little by little in ten steps, and this is the first step" (Rashi on Ezekiel 9:3:1). The mark on the foreheads was set "in order to be for a sign that the destroyers should not strike them" (Rashi on Ezekiel 9:4:2).
The command to begin at the sanctuary is read two ways. By the plain words it means those standing before the sanctuary. The Rabbis read it as "from My sanctified ones", the very ones marked with the sign. They were struck in the end because the standard of justice asked, "Is it not so that they did not protest?" (Rashi on Ezekiel 9:6:1). The land is full of perversion, which Rashi calls "Crooked judgments" (Rashi on Ezekiel 9:9:1).
The corpus carries 13 notes on this chapter without an English text, marked linked. Metzudat David's notes stand at 9:1:1, 9:7:1, 9:10:1 and 9:11:1. Radak's notes stand at 9:1:1, 9:3:1, 9:5:1, 9:6:1, 9:7:1, 9:8:1, 9:9:1, 9:10:1 and 9:11:1. Each stands cited and unquoted, because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 39 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 5 filed under the Talmud and 34 under the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:49, Eikhah Rabbah 2:3, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:73, Sanhedrin 102a:16 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 393:4. It also holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 798:1. On verse 2 it holds Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 5:6, Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 7:2:5, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 3:22:2, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Tazria 12:3 and Midrash Tanchuma, Tazria 9:1. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim of Rabbi Akiba, Aleph Bet of Rabbi Akiba (Version 2) 3. On verse 3 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:7, Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 25, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Rosh Hashanah 4:2 and Ein Yaakov, Rosh Hashanah 4:2.
It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Chuppah of Eliyahu, Chuppat Eliyahu Rabbah 243 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 13:11. On verse 4 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 5:3, Esther Rabbah 1:8, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 29:11:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 12:20:3. It also holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Tazria 13:2 and Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 7:4. On verse 6 it holds Avodah Zarah 4a:17 and Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 7:5. On verse 8 it holds Eikhah Rabbah 2:8, Eikhah Rabbah 4:14 and Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 581:1.
On verse 9 it holds Bava Kamma 79b:8, Bereshit Rabbah 28:5, Eikhah Rabbah 4:9, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Kama 7:3 and Ein Yaakov, Bava Kamma 7:7. On verse 11 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 1:20, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 1:21 and Otzar Midrashim, Keri & K'tiv, Midrash Ketiv V'lo Keri 7. It also holds Shemot Rabbah 33:4 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 187:2.
The corpus files one more locator under this chapter on a verse it does not have. Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 1:8:1 is filed on Ezekiel 9:40. It is left out of the list above rather than cited on a verse that is not there. This chapter has 11 verses.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Ezekiel 9:2:1 to 9:9:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Ezekiel 9:1:1 to 9:11:1, cited by ref only: Sefaria holds no English version of the ref; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 9:1:1 to 9:11:1, cited by ref only: Sefaria holds no English version of the ref; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/9.json, the 39 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Ezekiel 9: parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The man with the writer's inkhorn marks the mourners
Ezekiel 9:1-2
Six men come from the Upper Gate, “which faces north,” each with “a weapon of slaughter in his hand.” With them is “another man clothed in linen who had a writing kit at his side,” priestly dress and a scribe’s tool. One hand marks before six hands strike.
Ezekiel 9:1
“Them - Those whom God hath appointed to destroy the city: perhaps angels. Every man - Everyone; 'tis an Hebrew idiom. Each of these had a weapon proper for that kind of destruction which he was to effect; and so, some to slay with the sword, another with the pestilence, another with famine.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 9:1
“Cause them that have charge over the city - By those six men with destroying weapons the Chaldeans are represented, who had received commission to destroy the city; and when the north is mentioned in such cases, Chaldea and the Chaldean armies are generally intended. There appears to have been six men with a sort of slaughter-bills, and one man with an inkhorn. These may represent the seven counsellors of the eastern monarchs, who always saw the king’s face, and knew all the secrets of the government.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
a writing kit at his side: Six armed men arrive from the Upper Gate on the north side, each carrying a weapon of slaughter. Albert Barnes reads them as angels of wrath, coming from the side where invading armies entered the land. They stand beside the bronze altar, the place of sacrifice.
Ezekiel 9:2
“And, behold, six men,.... Either angels the form of men; or the generals of Nebuchadnezzar's army, as Kimchi interprets it; whose names are, Nergalsharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, Jer 39:3; these six executioners of God's vengeance are, in the Talmud (n), called "wrath, anger, fury, destruction, breach, and consumption:'' came from the way of the higher gate, Kimchi observes, from the Rabbins, that this is the eastern gate called the higher or upper gate, because it was above the court of the Israelites.”
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 9:2
“Stood beside the brazen altar - To signify that the people against whom they had their commission were, for their crimes, to be sacrificed to the demands of Divine justice.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 9:2
“At that gate of the temple the destroying angels entered, to show what it was that opened the door to them. Note, That way that sin lies judgments may be expected to come. Observe where they placed themselves: They went in and stood beside the brazen altar, on which sacrifices were wont to be offered and atonement made.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 9:3-4
the glory of the God of Israel rose from above the cherubim: The man in linen is sent to “put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.” Gill notes the Hebrew word for mark is the letter taw, written in the old script.
Ezekiel 9:3
“And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was,.... That is, the glorious God of Israel; or the glorious Shechinah, and divine Majesty, which dwelt between the cherubim over the mercy seat in the most holy place, removed from thence, as a token of his being about to depart from the temple, which in a short time would be destroyed.”
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 9:3
“Cherub - The singular is put collectively for the “cherubim,” which were upon the mercy-seat of the ark in the holy of holies, the proper seat of the glory of the Lord in the midst of Israel. God is represented as “arising” from between the cherubim to scatter His enemies Num 10:35.”
Ezekiel 9:3
“God--which had heretofore, as a bright cloud, rested on the mercy seat between the cherubim in the holy of holies (2Sa 6:2; Ps 80:1); its departure was the presage of the temple being given up to ruin; its going from the inner sanctuary to the threshold without, towards the officers standing at the altar outside, was in order to give them the commission of vengeance.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
put a mark on the foreheads: Before any judgment falls, the LORD sends the man in linen to mark the foreheads of those sighing and groaning over the city's abominations. Albert Barnes notes that the word for mark is Tau, the last Hebrew letter, once written in the shape of a cross. Mercy comes before judgment.
Ezekiel 9:4
“Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh - This is in allusion to the ancient every-where-used custom of setting marks on servants and slaves, to distinguish them from others. It was also common for the worshippers of particular idols to have their idol’s mark upon their foreheads, arms, etc. These are called sectarian marks to the present day among the Hindoos and others in India.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 9:4
“Thus he suffers and is dishonoured; and although he still ventures with shameless confidence to disguise himself, yet now, wretched spirit, he is detected the rather by them that bear the Sign on their foreheads; yea, more, he is rejected of them, and is humbled, and put to shame. For even if, now that he is a creeping serpent, he shall transform himself into an angel of light, yet his deception will not profit him; for we have been taught that `though an angel from heaven preach unto us any other gospel than that we have received, he is anathema.'”
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · Letter to the Bishops of Egypt 1:2patristic
Ezekiel 9:4
“But nowhere in Scripture are the words which are now employed as names of letters used to denote the letters themselves or their figures [VITRINGA]. The noun here is cognate to the verb, "mark a mark." So in Re 7:3 no particular mark is specified.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
ConnectionsRevelation 7:3
Begin at my sanctuary: the slaughter goes out
Ezekiel 9:5-7
The six are sent after the man in linen: “do not show pity or spare anyone,” sparing only those with the mark. “Now begin at My sanctuary” turns the sword on “the elders who were before the temple,” the leaders of the corruption shown in chapter 8.
Ezekiel 9:5
“And, to the others he said in mine hearing,.... To the other six men that had the slaughter weapons in their hands: go ye after him through the city; that is, after the man clothed with linen; for he was sent out first to take care of the righteous, and preserve them; and the rest were not suffered to stir till he was gone; and then they are bid to go after him.”
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 9:5
“You have given a sign, the blood itself of a lamb without blemish, slain for the sin of the world. And Ezekiel says that a sign was given on the foreheads of the persons.”
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · Homilies on the Psalms 20:3 (Ps 59)patristic
Ezekiel 9:5
“They are warned not to do the least hurt to those that were marked for salvation: " Come not near any man upon whom is the mark; do not so much as threaten or frighten any of them; it is promised them that there shall no evil come nigh them, and therefore you must keep at a distance from them." The king of Babylon gave particular orders that Jeremiah should be protected.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judgment starts at the sanctuary, with the elders standing before the temple. Albert Barnes identifies them with the men of 8:16 who turned their backs on the temple to bow to the sun. Anyone who has the mark is spared.
Ezekiel 9:6
“Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women,.... All, of them objects of compassion, because of their age and sex; and yet none to be spared; and which orders were exactly obeyed; see 2Ch 36:17; but come not near any man on whom is the mark; these were not to be slain; and though some were carried captive, as Daniel, and others; yet it was for their good and God's glory; see Rev 7:3; and begin at my sanctuary; the temple, the house of God, and the priests and Levites that dwelt there.”
3 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 9:6
“And what follows: 'And begin from my sanctuary,' or as the Seventy have translated, 'begin from my saints,' which means the priests who served in the temple and worshipped idols; or those who were called holy due to their merit in the priesthood among the people, and who were the first to deserve punishment for the sins of the people. For it is time, as it is written in I Corinthians 7, that judgment begin from the house of God.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
Ezekiel 9:6
“Begin at my sanctuary - Let those who have sinned against most mercy, and most privileges, be the first victims of justice. Those who know their Lord’s will, and do it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. The unfaithful members of Christ’s church will be first visited and most punished. But let not those who belong to the synagogue of Satan exult in this, for if judgment begin at the house of God what will the end be of them who obey not the Gospel! However, the truly penitent of all descriptions in such cases shall be safe.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 9:6
“God's heaviest wrath falls on those who have sinned against the highest privileges; these are made to feel it first (1Pe 4:17, 18). He hates sin most in those nearest to Him; for example, the priests, &c. ancient men--the seventy elders.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The LORD orders His own house defiled. Albert Barnes explains that dead bodies filling the courts would make the temple unclean, under the law of Numbers 19:11 on touching the dead. The slaughter then moves out from the temple into the city.
Ezekiel 9:7
“Defile the house - By filling the temple and its courts with the bodies of the slain. See Num 19:11.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 9:7
“Defile the house - A dreadful sentence, Let it be polluted, I will no more dwell in it; I now utterly forsake it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Will you destroy all the remnant of Israel?
I fell facedown and cried out: The prophet falls facedown and cries, “Oh, Lord GOD, when You pour out Your wrath on Jerusalem, will You destroy the entire remnant of Israel?” The plea assumes exile has reduced the nation to a remnant. Henry sets it beside Abraham’s plea for Sodom, a servant pleading against total destruction.
Ezekiel 9:8
“And when the slaughter was complete, I remained: and I fell upon my face, and crying out I said: Alas, Lord God, wilt thou then destroy all the remnant of Israel, pouring out thy fury upon Jerusalem? For when all those who did not have the seal were slain, the prophet fell down on his face, thinking that no one except himself had remained among the dead. And because this seemed to be contrary to the commandment that the Lord had given, that the men with sealed foreheads should not be slain, it was therefore removed from the Vulgate edition.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 9:8
“Wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel, On thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? - These destroyers had slain the seventy elders, the twenty-five adorers of the sun, and the women that mourned for Tammuz; and on seeing this slaughter the prophet fell on his face, and began to make intercession.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 9:8
“I was left--literally, "there was left I." So universal seemed the slaughter that Ezekiel thought himself the only one left [CALVIN]. He was the only one left of the priests "in the sanctuary." fell upon my face--to intercede for his countrymen (so Nu 16:22). all the residue--a plea drawn from God's covenant promise to save the elect remnant.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 9:9-10
The answer names both kingdoms and repeats the charge of chapter 7: “The land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of perversity.” The creed of the seventy elders is quoted again, “The LORD has forsaken the land; the LORD does not see,” now the ground for judgment.
Ezekiel 9:9
“For they say, The Lords hath forsaken the earth - את הארץ eth haarets, “this land.” He has no more place in Israel; he has quite abandoned it; he neither sees nor cares, and he can be no longer the object of worship to any man in Israel. This seems to be the meaning; and God highly resents it, because it was bringing him on a level with idols and provincial deities, who had, according to supposition, regency only in some one place.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 9:9
“But the cause of such great crimes is that they believed there is no providence over the earth, nor does God care about mortal things...”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
Ezekiel 9:9
“Nothing could be said in extenuation of this sin. God was willing to show mercy as the prophet could desire; he always is so. But here the case will not admit of it; it is such that mercy cannot be granted without wrong to justice; and it is not fit that one attribute of God should be glorified at the expense of another.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The LORD answers the prophet's plea of verse 8 with no pity and no sparing. John Gill calls this the law of retaliation: the leaders spared no widow or orphan, and so they are paid back in kind. Their deeds come down on their own heads.
Ezekiel 9:10
“And as for me also,.... As they have not spared the poor and the needy, the widow and the fatherless, but have perverted their judgment, and shed innocent blood: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompence their way upon their head; deal with them by the law of retaliation, and reward them according to their deserts; see Eze 7:4.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 9:10
“Mine eye shall not spare - They say, the Lord seeth not: this is false; I have seen all their iniquities, and do see all their abominations; and I will bring deserved judgment upon them, and then that eye which now sees will neither pity nor spare.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The man in linen reports, “I have done as You commanded,” and the last word goes to the one sent to mark rather than strike. The chapter records the slaughter’s completion without describing it. The report answers the command of verse 4 in its own terms.
Ezekiel 9:11
“I have done as thou hast commanded me - Angels and men must all give account of their conduct to God; for although he is every where, and his eye sees all things, yet they must personally account for all that they have done. I have done as thou hast commanded me. The penitents are all signed; the penitents are all safe. This is good news for them that mourn.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 9:11
“Or this report was made now because the thing was finished, whereas the destroying work would be a work of time, and when it was brought to an end then the report should be made. See how faithful Christ is to the trust reposed in him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; John Gill; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.